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On the contribution of Angola to the initial spread of HIV-1
Publication . Pineda-Peña, Andrea-Clemencia; Varanda, Jorge; Sousa, João Dinis; Theys, Kristof; Bártolo, Inês; Leitner, Thomas; Taveira, Nuno; Vandamme, Anne-Mieke; Abecasis, Ana B.
Angola borders and has long-term links with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as well as high levels of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) genetic diversity, indicating a potential role in the initial spread of the HIV-1 pandemic. Herein, we analyze 564 C2V3 and 354 pol publicly available sequences from DRC, Republic of Congo (RC) and Angola to better understand the initial spread of the virus in this region. Phylogeographic analyses were performed with the BEAST software. While our results pinpoint the origin of the pandemic to Kinshasa (DRC) around 1906, the introduction of HIV-1 to Angola could have occurred early between the 1910s and 1940s. Furthermore, most of the HIV-1 migrations out of Kinshasa were directed not only to Lubumbashi and Mbuji-Mayi (DRC), but also to Luanda and Brazzaville. Kinshasa census records corroborate these findings, indicating that the early exportation of the virus to Angola might be related to the high number of Angolans in Kinshasa at that time, originated mostly from the North of Angola.
In summary, our results place Angola at the epicenter of the early HIV dissemination, together with DRC and RC.
It was not the perfect storm: the social history of the HIV-2 virus in Guinea-Bissau
Publication . Varanda, Jorge; Santos, José Maurício
The perfect storm model that was elaborated for the HIV-1M pandemic has also been used
to explain the emergence of HIV-2, a second human immunodeficiency virus-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS) that became an epidemic in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa. The use
of this model creates epidemiological generalizations, ecological oversimplifications and historical
misunderstandings as its assumptions—an urban center with explosive population growth, a high
level of commercial sex and a surge in STDs, a network of mechanical transport and country-wide,
en masse mobile campaigns—are absent from the historical record. This model fails to explain how
the HIV-2 epidemic actually came about. This is the first study to conduct an exhaustive examination of sociohistorical contextual developments and align them with environmental, virological
and epidemiological data. The interdisciplinary dialogue indicates that the emergence of the HIV-2
epidemic piggybacked on local sociopolitical transformations. The war’s indirect effects on ecological
relations, mobility and sociability were acute in rural areas and are a key to the HIV-2 epidemic. This
setting had the natural host of the virus, the population numbers, the mobility trends and the use
of technology on a scale needed to foster viral adaptation and amplification. The present analysis
suggests new reflections on the processes of zoonotic spillovers and disease emergence.
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Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Programa de financiamento
3599-PPCDT
Número da atribuição
PTDC/AFR/100646/2008